I think if you were to ask anyone in a non-polling setting whether they'd rather see job creation or deficit reduction, I can't imagine they'd go, "Screw feeding my family! I want to cut the deficit!"
I just don't buy that there's this massive obsession with deficit over job creation -- especially considering that cutting spending will surely hinder the economic recovery and slow job creation. The only alternative Republican solution for job creation is to cut taxes. George W. Bush did that, and the deficit blew up, and several years later we're looking at 10 percent unemployment.
And, as Atrios points out, can we bury this notion that Democrats are less fiscally responsible than Republicans? Modern Republican presidents have been notorious for running up massive deficits. And our current Democratic Congress doesn't take a piss without a go-ahead from the CBO.
Republican economic/fiscal ideology has proven to be a failure, and no one can point to a time when Republicans cut spending, cut taxes, cut the deficit and created jobs all at the same time. It doesn't work. You need to spend in order to grow the economy. And when the economy is robust enough, the focus can return to deficit reduction. But now is NOT the time.